Chavez supporters respond with own march to ultimatum dealt by
opponents
by Yanina Olivera
CARACAS, Oct 13 (AFP) - At least a million supporters of
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez joined in a march Sunday, six months after
the president was temporarily ousted in a coup, and following mass
calls for his resignation earlier this week.
The 16-kilometer (10-mile) march of pro-Chavez supporters came
three days after Thursday's demonstration in Caracas where an
estimated 1.2 to two million people joined in, to urge Chavez's
resignation.
Present himself at Sunday's march, Chavez rejected opposition
calls for early elections, with up to two million people marching in
his support, according to the Venezuelan leader's own estimates.
"The next elections will be in December -- December 2006," said
Chavez.
"Elections -- yes -- for January, for February to revoke the
mandate of those deputies who have betrayed the revolution," signed
into law following the 2000 elections which confirmed Chavez as
president, he told Venezuelans, in a public address made at the end
of the march.
"I challenge the opposition to bring the country to a
standstill," Chavez said from the podium. "Let's see if you bring
Venezuela to a standstill -- do it! You can call a strike whenever
you want.
"This is a message not only for the people who are here, but for
all of Venezuela."
Around 2,500 police were on hand to provide security at the
march, according to Caracas Mayor Freddy Bernal, although uniforms
were not especially visible. Police helicopters overflew the event.
Critics, disagreeing with Chavez's estimates for supporters in
attendance at Sunday's protest acknowledged, however, there was a
higher participation than at Thursday's opposition event.
First elected in 1998, Chavez moved forward with his proposals
to reform Venezuela's constitution, rewriting it under the name of
one of the greatest heroes of the Americas: Simon Bolivar.
Under the rewritten Constitution, Chavez is elected to remain in
power until 2006, with the chance for reelection to another six-year
term after that.
Chavez urged Venezuela's telecommunications chief to check that
all radio and television stations were broadcasting his message.
In his radio address Saturday, he had threatened to remove
operations contracts from any media companies seeking to contribute
to actions that might destabilize the government.
The pro-Chavez demonstration was carried live by Venezuela's
state television channel.
Chavez charged that several television companies had cut their
coverage of the event -- after threatening to remove their
operations contracts Thursday if they aided and abetted
destabilizing events the day of the opposition march.
Mass demonstrations on April 11-12 contributed to a coup that
removed Chavez from power for 47 hours, before he was reinstated.
Chavez has blamed private television companies for having acted in
such a way as to promote the coup.
On a stage mounted in Bolivar Avenue, where the march led to,
the words: "Respect for the Constitution. 'No' to pro-coup
blackmail" were written.
"This is an unquestionable democratic fact, in the same way that
the opposition march on Thursday was," Vice President Jose Vicente
Rangel said.
"The difference is that in the other there were coup-plotters,"
Rangel said, noting that Sunday's demonstration was "the march of
love, of dialogue -- the other one had dark aspects to it."
Leader of the ruling Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) party, Luis
Alfonso Davila said that these people have unity of purpose and of
their leaders, unlike in Thursday's march" -- in reference to the
opposition's Democratic Coordinator group.